CRUELTY OF CREATION. 519 



of cruelty or he would not prefer it ; he is therefore 

 cruel, which is absurd. 



Again, either sin entered the world against the will 

 of the Creator, in which case he is not omnipotent, or 

 it entered with his permission, in which case it is his 

 agent, in which case he selects sin, in which case he 

 has a preference for sin, in which case he is fond of sin, 

 in which case he is sinful, which is an absurdity again. 



The good in this world predominates over the bad ; 

 the good is ever increasing the bad is ever diminishing. 

 But if God is Love why is there any bad at all ? Is the 

 world like a novel in which the villains are put in to 

 make it more dramatic, and in which virtue only 

 triumphs in the third volume ? It is certain that the 

 feelings of the created have ia no way been considered. 

 If indeed there were a judgment-day it would be for 

 man to appear at the bar not as a criminal but as an 

 accuser. What has he done that he should be sub- 

 jected to a life of torture and temptation ? God might 

 have made us all happy, and he has made us all miser- 

 able. Is that benevolence ? God might have made 

 us all pure, and he has made us all sinful. Is that 

 the perfection of morality ? If I believed in the exist- 

 ence of this man-created God, of this divine Nebuchad- 

 nezzar, I would say, You can make me live in your 

 world, Creator, but you cannot make me admire it ; 

 you can load me with chains, but you cannot make me 

 flatter you ; you can send me to hell-fire, but you can- 

 not obtain my esteem. And if you condemn me, you 

 condemn yourself. If I have committed sins, you 

 invented them, which is worse. If the watch you 

 have made does not go well, whose fault is that ? Is 

 it rational to damn the wheels and the springs ? 



But it is when we open the Book of Nature, that 



